The Argument of Evil

I will argue in the following paper that the existence of a perfectly benevolent, omnipotent, omniscient God comes with the existence of evil. God is not a micromanager; he gave us free will for a reason. I will argue that it is our decision to create evil and not his doing. In order for good to exist evil has to exist.

I'll start off by saying that very few people actually believe that God is, in fact, truly benevolent. Most Christians believe God is the punitive and jealous God of the Old Testament, smiting those he dislikes. Depending on whom you listen to, Hurricane Katrina was retribution from God for abortion, homosexuality, or just general debauchery. I find it very difficult to argue either side in this as I myself do not believe in a God; however, I will take the viewpoint of someone who does and try my best to argue my case.

Christianity says that God gave us free will so we could make our own decisions, decide our own futures, with no direct influence from God. Whether we do good things or bad things is ultimately left in our hands. God just watches us, knowing ahead of time the outcomes of our decisions (he can do so through omniscience and prescience). God did not create perfect beings, and for this reason we are able to create evil in the world. Good and evil exist in people, it is up to us which we choose to be.

The Bible says that God allows temporary, bounded evil in order to allow humans with free will to have the ability to love and make their own choices between good and evil. No other creature on the planet has the capacity to be more evil than mankind. No other animal kills needlessly. Humans have the capacity to kill for revenge or pleasure, among other reasons. We make the decision ourselves to commit evil acts, God does not make us do these acts against good. He does not interfere in day to day life.

The following is an argument illustrating the contradictions of evil and an omnipotent, benevolent God (i.e. the Christian God):

1) God is omnipotent

2) God is perfectly good

3) A good being will eliminate any evil as well as it can

4) There is no limit as to what an omnipotent God can do

5) An omnipotent being can eliminate evil completely

6) The existence of an omnipotent, omniscient, perfectly benevolent being is inconsistent with the existence of evil.

Many evils can lead to a greater good. For example,